WALTHAM, Mass. – Junior point guard Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) stole the ball and took it the length of the court for a layup to lift the University of New Haven men’s basketball team to a 50-48 victory over Bentley University Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Chargers won their 11-straight, tying the longest winning streak since the 2002-03 season. UNH move to 12-5 overall and 9-4 in the Northeast-10 Conference, while the Falcons drop to 7-10 overall and 5-8 in conference play. The win also marked New Haven’s first victory at the Dana Center since the 2001-02 season.
Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) led the team with a game-high 19 points, while adding seven rebounds. He tied a season-best six three-pointers, while adding one at the charity stripe. Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) added 10 points and 11 rebounds in his 11th double-double of the season. The Newark, N.J. native also rejected three shots in the win. Adkins finished with 11 points and a game-high six assists.
In the very low-scoring opening period, New Haven and Bentley went point-for-point through a majority of the opening minutes. After 10 minutes, Exum drained a trey to break a 6-6 tie, but the game remained close. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native hit another three-pointer just four minutes later to give the Chargers their largest lead of the first half 14-9 with 6:17 remaining. The Falcons quickly battled back and evened the score at 14-14 with 5:33 left. UNH then went on a 9-2 run to close the half and take a 23-16 lead at the break.
The Chargers improved their lead to as many as 10 in the early going of the second half. Anderson hit back-to-back baskets to give UNH its largest lead of the game with 12:56 left in the second half, 37-25. Bentley responded with its own 12-3 run over the next 5:30 to cut New Haven’s lead back to three points. Exum sparked the Chargers again with another long range shot at the 7:08 mark. The score stayed within two possessions until the Falcons went on a 6-0 run starting at the three-minute mark. The run concluded with Bentley taking its first lead of the half with just 1:21 left on the clock. Adkins evened the score at 48-48 with 43 seconds and on the Falcons next possession, he took a steal the length of the court to give UNH the go-ahead score. Bentley’s final possession came up short and the Chargers sealed their 11th straight.
As a team, UNH was held to a season-low 50 points, but the Chargers held an eight-point advantage in points in the paint. New Haven went 21-for-57 from the field (36.8 percent) and 6-for-21 from three-point territory (28.6 percent). UNH held Bentley to just 32.8 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent from three-point range. Rebounds were nearly equal with New Haven holding a small 39-38 advantage.
